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Complete Transformers Generation One Set on ebay
doogles writes "I ran across quite a blast from the past today on ebay. A complete Transformers: Generation One set is for sale on ebay starting at $10,000 although at this time there are no bids." I was never allowed to have transformers as a kid. I had go-bots (a cheap knockoff if I've ever seen one). My friends had Optimus Prime, Starscream, and the rest. God I loved all those things. The show was allright, but those toys are a huge part of my childhood. Course the other interesting thing is how over the years the sets grew, and got... well, silly. But that first year... wow.
You let your mom get her hands on your stuff? :)
If my mom tried to get rid of my stuff, I'd figure it out and reclaim before she could do so
Everything I've lost is because either I lost it, it was stolen, or a friend didn't give it back.
Of course, I only got a few transformer toys when I was a kid...
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
my favorite and first was the original megatron.. probably the hardest transformer to undo and redo. it was a hand gun and it could be transformed into multiple things.. wish i could get just that one.. mb
Damnit, can't you people post these thing without putting a spoiler warning before them! ;-[
auctioning off human souls!
ridiculopathy.com
Stuff like this doesn't happen often. Transformers rock....
;)
Anyway, my dad tried to get me away from Transformers when I was 8 by giving me $10 bucks and going to an overpriced toy store. I coulda gone home with a go-bot or saved my money for a transformer next month. I saved my money.
Eventually I grew out of them and went back to legos. Recently, went to go see "Transformers The Movie"... Now everytime I hear about transformers I am reminded about the retarded junkbots doing that ridiculous victory dance. Whatever happened to the turbo-tounged VA anyway?
Your post brings back some memories. I remember how happy I was that Christmas morning when I opened up my new Ultra Magnus. It was cool having a new pal for optimus. I also had Rodimus Prime at one point (I don't remember if he was ever in the show, but I think he was in the movie). I had the old Megatron and even Galvatron too. All of the above were obliterated by my brothers. :( Metroplex, otoh, I broke myself...though that was a very cool robot.
I'm still jealous over my brother's Omega Supreme...still in perfect condition. Man....I wish I still had all my old transformers....if this guy makes 10 grand selling his, I could have at least made 3 or 4.
Time is fun when you're having flies.
-Kermit the Frog
Do you know anywhere that i can find some pictures? most of my friend's transformers were pretty boring, that one was really neat and they were all jealous of me for it(an i wasn't a big fan). I want to see if it still looks like what i remember...
That's a sweet deal, even if its pricey. Wonder if the toys are really in good to mint condition.
The Beast Wars had a little joke on that when Optimus Primal made a remark about Teletran1(Gen 1 transformers)
"Die cast technology, its a lost art"
I just got back from an Auto/Boat show (no, not AutoBOT show), and I noticed that brand new Kia's are going for a little over $10,000.
Thus I must ask the question: Would it be cooler to have a bunch of Transformers that formed into a working automobile, or would you prefer a new Kia that transformed into a giant robot?
(I'd have to go with the latter myself, since if I had the former I would probably lose one of the DinoBots that was part of the engine or something else important)
------
Let me give you the lowdown
I was the first kid inmy primary school class to get a Transformer - a cool little car, can't remember the name now. In time I got many more transformers, Optimus Prime, Lynx (a cool space-shuttle that transformed into a sort of pteradactyl (sp?) with a motorised landing trolley that transformed into some animal thing IIRC), Omega Supreme (mother of all transformers but fiddly to take apart and put togethor lots of parts to remove and put in different places - lots of parts to lose), and a whole pile of others that I can't remember the names of now. Let's not forget the rip-off of transformers - MASK, they were more of a cross between GI-JOE and Transformers though.
NZ Electronics Enthusiasts: Check out my Trade Me Listings
In the movie there is a triple changer Transformer (train - space shuttle - robot, I had'im) who was to carry a whole bunch of other Transformers to some planet (while he was transformed into a space shuttle). Around 10 of them jump aboard INSIDE him, including the constroctabots(sp?). I remember they had a fight in mid flight, and the constroctabots transformed into devastator (who has to be the size of a building).. while still inside the space shuttle guy, what's up with that?
Energy cubes. How the hell do they get the energy to be self contained in the shape of a cube?
Flying. Most of the Transformers could fly as robots as if they were Superman. Starscream was a jet fighter, sometimes he transformed to fly, other times he didn't.. what's up with that?
The planet where they are from. It's not a "human" planet! where did the VW beetles, ambulances and fire trucks come from??
Optimus Primes' fuck!ng TRAILER.. where the hell did it come from?
and finally... WHAT'S WITH THE TWO HUMAN FRIENDS!!! (you know, the dad and the kid with the hard hats and lab coats)
--------------------------upSIde dOwn -- umOp apISdn--------------------------
Cartoon Network aired the last five episodes of the second season of Beast Wars: Transformers.
The original Transformers fans can't stand them but plenty of kids are buying them.
There are actually many original Transformers fans that enjoy Beast Wars. Read alt.toys.transformers if you don't believe me.
Most are much cheaper made and there are so many different lines of action figures that it is hard for them to be memorable.
You are partially correct. The toys no longer use die cast metal to reduce production costs, but they are quite durable. Many of the toys were far from memorable because they weren't seen on the cartoon.
"I think so, Brain, but 'instant karma' always gets so lumpy." - Pinky
"Decepticons FOREVER!!!" - Ravage
I always used to wonder how some of those robots transformed when humans were riding in them. I guess as a kid I used to secretly hope for that one "special" episode where one of those annoying Earth kids would have an "accident" inside Bumblebee...
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Let me give you the lowdown
The privilege of asking a ridiculous price for action figures is supposed to be reserved strictly for those who keep the toys in the
original sealed package! What's next, Beanies
with the ear tags ripped off?
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
An the masters of the universe!!
By the power of GraySkull, I pronounce you man and wife.
(ooh wo-Jem, the music's contaegous-outrageous.. jem is my name no one else is the same, jem is my name ... WE ARE THE MISFITS our songs are are better something something WE'RE GONNA GET HER).
You can download the Jem title sequence from the Transformers Archive (clever avoidance of offtopicness, I know. Cheers!).
-- Eat your greens or I'll hit you!
-- Eat your greens or I'll hit you!
I grew to love them - but Legos were my true passion. In reading UGO's transformer page they had up when the DVD came out (Cant find the url - sorry) it mentioned that after the first season the movie came out and thats when the robots were destroyed. GENUIS! Everyone buys the $8 a pop toys and then they have to have the new ones cause their old toys are dead!
There is this PA tho
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Yup, his name is JetFire, I believe. IIRC, the model was originally made for some sort of Robotech toy line, and was modified for Transformers. Without a doubt the coolest Transformer ever.
Both cartoons came out the same yearin the U.S. Neither one was particularlly a rip-off of the other in the sense, but they did have to compete with each other based on the fact that both cartoons featured characters that could alter their form.
1984 was (in my opinion) the greatest year in cartoons.
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Anyone else remember Voltron? Or did you think Power Rangers was an original idea.....
It's during on of the battle scenes on the Planet of Junk. They actually used the real version during that scene (lyrics and everything), while they used an instrumental version of it during another.
Damn, I remember my old transformers. Now those were *real* toys. Not just plastic shite. I remember my wheeljack being made of metal, rubber tires, real damn paint. Hefty. Those were the days.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Yeah, that's something that dawned on me too.
My toys from childhood are in DREADFUL condition. Star Wars figs with heads missing and paint jobs done on them. Transformers that have been kitbashed no end - or else literally destroyed through heavy playing. G.I. Joes (some so old they don't have Swivel-Arm Battle Grip) that have been kitbashed, repainted, and had their crotches broken off. An original Kenner Millennium Falcon which I: dismantled the cockpit and removed the cardboard wall so there's an actual hallway from the cockpit to the back compartment, repainted parts of the upper hull for battle damage, and DRILLED holes throughout in hopes of wiring it for lights.
I still have all these sad relics. The busted Transformers still get played with. But I figure they're near-worthless in their current condition; they'd probably be worth tens of thousands of dollars if they were all in mint condition.
But you know what? I think back and wonder what I'd be like if I kept 'em all on shelves or, heaven forbid, in the original boxes. It was fucking WORTH it. Even the Falcon - I got more enjoyment out of tearing it up than I would get today out of selling it in mint condition.
~ radiographite: art by john shepard
On the subject of Transformers...
I was driving down the highway a few monthes ago
when I noticed a truck, nothing special,
until I drove by and checked my rear view...
it had an AUTOBOTS LOGO! (which I thought was
totally cool)
So I went and checked and found this site...
http://www.insaniteesonline.com/
Which sells both stickers and decals of
Transformers (and even Thundercats, which I
was more excited about)... (as well as a
bunch of other crap)
Yay!
Cheerio!
-Llah
~- Llah -~
Nah, I'd say that transformers corrupted our youth if the previous author is correct. We were all set and fine until OOP came around. :)
Don't get you panties in a bunch, it's a joke.
Yep, I never spell check.
More incorrect spellings can be found he
The seller could put an mp3 of the song "Dare To Be Stupid" playing in the background as you try to decide whether or not to bid $10,000 for some junk.
I have a nephew now who has a set of MindStorms and the O'Reilly book (His Dad gave him the MindStorms I gave him the book). This kid is going to rock the world. It is still possible you just have to choose wisely.
Cypherpunks: Civil Liberty Through Complex Mathematics. Those who live by the sword die by the arrow.
Of course, all that changed when Mom started making me buy my own toys.
Don't forget Gargoyles. Only ran from 94-96, but it was one of the few decent animated series Disney ever made. It had its share of toys and marketing as well, but the plot and characters were very well done. It was canceled primarily because it couldn't compete with Power Rangers - a big mistake if there ever was one.
Check out http://www.s8.org/gargoyles if you want to know more about the series.
The original set was cool. I always wanted the Megatron that transformed into a life-sized gun. That would never have made it past the PR department these days.
I remember one i had that transformed into a boombox. He had "cassettes" which transformed into small animal robots. I can't remember his name, though.
I remember on Christmas I got a really, really awesome Transformer who turned into a white metal jet. Man, he was cool. An I remember how there was something wrong with him, so we had to return him, but they didn't have any more (being right after Christmas and all) so I got some truck dude who was Optimus Prime's cousin or something.
I remember the occasional toy that would be really "stiff"; the joints would be very difficult to move. They tended to stay in one form most of the time.
I remember making the obligatory "chi-choo-choo-choo-choo-chi" sound as I transformed these toys.
I remember seeing the Transformers movie with my mom.
I thought it was cool when, a couple years ago, my little brother started getting into "Beastwars", which, as you may not know, is a descendant of the original show/merchandising empire. Personally I don't think they're as cool as the originals, but hey, they're still Transformers.
I remember seeing the original TV show somewhere a few months ago and being astounded at how awful the animation and voices are. This happens whenever I see one of the cartoons of my early years, such as Thundercats and He-man. What was that cartoon with the metal cyborg people with wings? Silverhawks? Oh well, I forget. These days I watch a lot of Japanese animation (although I don't subscribe to CmdrTaco's "anime newbie cheerleading club" here on /.) and it's amazing to compare even kids cartoons from Nihon with the crap kids watch today. Your parents may have though the cartoons you watched were trash... well, most modern cartoons really are. The few imported anime shows don't help much... I'm always amazed at the awful English dubbing. American TV people seem to think that because a show is animated, it should have cheesy "kiddy" voices. Dubs always seem stupid and immature. That's why I actually hope the American TV industry halts its current "anime is hip and cool, kids like it, so do we" before they fuck up too many series. I've heard that Rurouni Kenshin is going to be shown, dubbed, on Cartoon Network... God help us all. Maybe I should kill myself now?
Anyway, I think this story is like most of Slashdot's stories over the past six months (mostly stupid and irrelevant), but thanks for the memories anyway. Transformers were a big part of my life too.
All generalizations are false.
--
I like to watch.
It's the lyrics, too. Yes, it's a little odd to have that during a battle scene...
It might make more sense if you read this theory.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
bury them in our sandboxes for weeks ;-)
*Pinks away tear* Fondly recalls playing with my (full metal) Matchbox cars in the sandbox. I think I have some of those somewhere in a closet, just hope I cleaned them before stowing them away
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
hehe - my voltron was taken away as a kid b/c they were done w/ lead paint and were recalled. it was one of the saddest days of my childhood.
but - i did find one on ebay once - pretty good condition w/ some sticker wear. now it sits in my living room for all to be jealous of.
-Jae
Great Transformer nfo
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Yeah, I've still managed to hang onto a few transformers oddly enough, but My Starwars action figures were always my Favorite and unfortunately they're all gone now.
:(. I don't know, It's almost like buying back our innocense. I'm sure that's why I love SW so much, It's the first movie I saw in the theater and was only 4 at the time so it stuck like nothing else ever could. It is the epic reminder of how great it was to be so young and imaginative... Reminds me of dreaming of being a jedi and fighting the evil empire. Everything was so clearcut and simple, there was no in-between. Just good and bad, right and wrong. *sniff*
I'm still fanatical about starwars, I have the box vhs set, episode 1 collectors edition, starwars mouse pad, and still get teary when darth vader dies after saving luke. I can see how someone would be willing to spend 10,000$ on transformers if money was no object. Personally I wouldn't go for the transformers, but definately the Starwars.
Damn, my parents were right, all thouse years I spent just wanting to be older so my parents couldn't make me clean my room and they kept sayin "when you're our age you'll wish you were this young" I hate it when they're right...
Now my girlfriend makes me clean my room
All these feelings from and article about transformers for sale. This isn't news, but it's really cool and it's important, almost art...
That's great, but I think 99.9% of us don't read that site.
Thanks for the info though.
Really.
I think its sick to sell and buy ->STUFF- at crazy prices but what always got me were people that would give, for example, a little girl a barbie and say now dont play with that barbie - its a special barbie and is gonna be a colector's item someday. WTF? IT IS A TOY -- Sickos
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
Hey, don't knock the new stuff so completely. The new action figures have some good features - for one thing, they're waaaay more posable then the original transformers..... I used to make little "Battle scenes" when I was a kid, and I was always annoyed at guys who had no posability except for the shoulders, so they could raise the gun arms. The newer models are mostly ball+socket joints at the elbows, hips, and shoulders, so they're quite posable. Plus, if you stick with it a bit, the Mainframe 3d cartoons really grow on you - yeah, its got some low points, like the grand finale, but its pretty. The Beast Machines Cheetorr is damn schweet, not to mention the bad guys in that (though RatTrap is freaking pestulent in that show). Seriously, people look at their childhood memories through rose-coloured glasses. Watch some of the old stuff again, you'll see its pretty well about the same quality overall - some crap here, some crap there. For example, most of the original transformers had such shitty transformations that the cartoon had to fudge them completely - like the fact that most TF action figures don't even have separate legs. Don't be so quick to damn the new stuff. It was made by and for TF fans, like it should be. Just because we're all automatically wired to say "Its a revival of the original, ergo it sucks ass" by all the shitty Hollywood revivals doesn't mean its always the case.
Try to Slashdot eBay. I dare you. Yes, try it now. I will wait.
vi? emacs?
NO!
gijoe vs transformers vs gem (for our female geeks)
Yep, I never spell check.
More incorrect spellings can be found he
Okay, why are the tags so fscked up lately? There were line breaks in that message, I clicked Plain Old Text, and it still vomits out one big paragraph.
It's old news..
Douglas Adams
1952-2001 :(
I was a HUGE fan of the original transformers. Wish I could buy this set. I've looked at what they call Transformers now and they are terrible! Cheap plastic... terrible transformations.... terrible shame.
Gobots may have been cheap, but IIRC, Transformers were a rip-off of Gobots. A good rip-off, but a rip-off.
ticks = jiffies;
while (ticks == jiffies);
ticks = jiffies;
Have you read my journal today?
I had optimus prime. Do you remember the little buggy that sat in the trailer? You pressed a lever near the tow line and it fired out the back. The other one I had was Sunseeker. This was a yellow convertible, i think it was a lamborghini - not sure. Any ideas??? How cool were the tapes that the deceptacons had?
-- Cheer, Cheer, The Red and the White.
The music (with lyrics) plays during the Autobots' battle alongside the Junktacons against the Decepticons on the planet Junk. Or maybe it was the Autobots against the Junktacons before they all became friends. Either way, Wreck Gar was a badass.
My Dad collects old Howdy Doody stuff from his childhood, my Mom digs dolls and clowns. As a result, all of those toys from my childhood are still packed away in boxes in my parents' attic -- Transformers, GI Joe, He-Man, Legos, Construx, Robotix, Capsela, etc. They'll all be there waiting for me when I want to wax nostalgic over them. (That is, if they don't run out of room for their stuff and pitch mine...)
Well, except for the Skyfire Tansformer. You know, the one they ripped off from the Robotech Veritech Fighters? He's currently sitting on a shelf in my cubicle, repainted in the black and white colour scheme of the Veritech Fighter Jet. Who cares if it destroys the value? He looks badass with that skull&crossbones on the cockpit window.
This is not a Fugazi
Heh, I think we all only got a few of any toy compared to other kids :)
Really, I remember my mom taking my X-Wing fighter and making me give it to good will just because it was missing the canopy, and the four blasters (I would use them as rockets also so they disappeared) and I think the landing gear at the nose.
I still miss it *sniff*
this is 100% true. if you haven't seen the transformers movie do yourself a favor and see it. it is great.
-=tonyt=-
Yup. The whole set. Then we sold them in a yard sale. Bad move...
I shouldn't respond to your flamebait, but I'm going to assume you were too busy playing with your Transformers to see the difference I was pointing out...
Before Transformers, there was plenty of children's entertainment, and YES, it did get used for marketing from time to time. But before Transformers, the children's entertainment had to be popular on its own merit before a line of toys based on it would be made. Transformers changed all that permanently, by combining marketing and entertainment together, with toys already on the shelf before most kids even saw the television program. Ingenious, wicked and effective.
Remember that there weren't any Star Wars toys available until AFTER the movie was popular in theatres. Yes, Lucas got a quick jump, ready to market the stuff, but the movie had to succeed first.
How old am I? I'm old enough to remember cartoon shows that didn't come with their own toys and popular children's toys that didn't come with their own cartoon show.
The arms falling off were apparently a problem with the design. I went through at least two Japanese-made versions of the same toy("real" Robotech) and the arms came off on all of them.
:(
The articulation was incredible, but the joints were weak.
any info on when the widescreen version will be released here? i'd much rather have that then the full screen.
-Jae
You state that the "highly skilled manual laborer" should have done his schoolwork better. Now I will tell you something that may sound strange to you: some people just can't "use their brain more", not everyone is equal in an intellectual point of view. (Nor in a physical point of view of course)
I can tell: I have a bother who is a "highly skilled manual laborer", not because he was lazy at school but because it was above his capabilities to finish middle school. He now has a good job, but please never associate that "being a laborer" means "being lazy at school"
Besides a lot of geeks owe their education to a hard working "highly skilled manual laborer" called "Dad" (or "Mom")...
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
There's no way I can not afford the whole collection but I would certainly be interested in buying Jetfire.
It's the same robot design they used for the Robotech series. IMHO, the first war was the best one.
He's the coolest transformer ever and if I remember the episodes correctly he's still trapped in an iceberg?
john
"If a show of teeth is not enough, bite
A while back, I purchased a copy of the1986 animated classic, 'Transformers: The Movie'. This mini-epic starred Leonard Nimoy, Judd Nelson, and Orson Welles in his final performance. It opens with a Decepticon (the bad guys, for those who aren't in the know) attack on the Autobots' (good guys) city on Earth, wherein the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime, is killed, and the Decepticon leader, Megatron, is transfigured by a world-eating planet called Unicron into a far more powerful being, Galvatron, in order to destroy the Autobots' Matrix of Leadership, a mystical artifact which has the power to destroy Unicron. Combine top-flight Japanese animation with the best in cheesy 1980's pseudo-metal, and you have a cinematic delight.
However, after watching the film several (yes, several) times, and discussing it with a group of my friends, I've come to some conclusions about a certain way in which the film can be interpreted. I believe that a Marxist/socialist/Communist interpretation can be applied to the film, analyzing its elements in terms of the Cold War scenario of the 1980's.
For example, the Autobots represent to the forces of Capitalism, i.e. the Western World. Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus, their leaders during the majority of the film, are both colored red, white, and blue, the colors of the American flag. They live in a society which is governed by 'energon', a power source which they use as a form of currency. Also, they are governed by a concensus, even though their leader holds veto power over their government.
The Decepticons, on the other hand, represent the forces of Communism, specifically the power of the Soviet Union, and the oppression of industry. For example, the Decepticons flee the battle of Autobot City in Astrotrain, a robot with the power to transform into a locomotive; this represents the Decepticons' dependence on industrialization, much like the Soviets'. The Decepticons are ruled in an autocratic manner, where those who can defeat or supplant the leader become absolute monarch over their society. The giant robot, Devastator, is the avatar of the 'collective' concept of Communism.
Other elements of the film represent other elements of the repressive Soviet society as well. For example, several of the Autobots find themselves trapped on the world of the Quintessons, imperial judges whose verdicts always result in death. They represent the unreasoning Soviet legal system, which was state-controlled and made no allowance for mercy or jurisprudence. The Quintesson's servants, the Sharkticons, are mindless, all-consuming drones; they represent the Army, which enforces the decisions of the judicial system without question or apprehension.
The Autobot Grimlock, who expresses his world-view in "Me Grimlock no kisser; Me Grimlock king!", eventually turns the Sharkticons against the Quintessons, with his superior physical presence. He is the analog of the Communist dictator, such as Joseph Brosz (Marshal Tito) of Yugoslavia and Ncolai Ceauescau of Romania; he enforces his desires through phyiscal means and terror, inducing those who serve the system to turn against it.
When Megatron is transfigured into Galvatron, he slays the Decepticons who disagree with him, namely Starscream. This is much like Stalin's purges of the old Leninist regimes in the early 1920's, getting rid of those who don't agree with your policies in order to make your government work. Galvatron's transformation is not only physical and mental but also ideological.
Several Autobots land on the planet of Junk, inhaited by the Junkions. The Junkions are ramshackle robots who are built and regenerate from the endless scrap heap which comprises their planet. They are addicted to television transmission, and much of the lingua franca of the Junkions is composed of phrases from common TV shows. They represent the endless proletariat of the Communist state, kept placid by the various media and endlessly regenerating from the wellspring of procreation.
Unicron is a monolithic figure within the movie, instigating much of its action. He changes Megatron into Galvatron, initiating the subsequent disruption of the balance of power between Autobot and Decepticon. Imagine if something had given Communism a clear advantage over Capitalism, leaving the concept of capitalism in the dust; that is what Unicron is. He represents the inevitability of economic change from barter, to capitalism, to socialism, as proposed by Karl Marx. Unicron is the inevitable dialectic of history.
The Autobots' Matrix represents the variable which economic analyses cannot predict, that is the desire of the human being for freedom and equality (Yeah, it's kind of hokey, but so's the plot). The Matrix is able to destroy Unicron, which is much like human consciousness disrupting the dialectic of history, resisting communism in favor of capitalism. When the Matrix destroys Unicron at the end of the film, it is much like the residents of East Berlin breaking down the Berlin Wall; they as well are resisting the inevitability of economic, social, and historical change from one system to another. These are just some of the elements in "Transformers: The Movie" which support the Marxist interpretation of its storyline. I encourage you to rent, buy, borrow, or steal it; it's great fun.
There opened but there are nearly 200 of them in the set. Even assuming just regular retail prices for each one that's pretty close to 10000$ right there.
FYI --
With a little quick math ($10,000 / 200 = $50) I think that it's safe to say that to have purchased these originally would've been an order of magnitude cheaper. I know that some of them got a little expensive, but I doubt any but the most outrageous of the transformers ever got past the $25 mark, much less $50. And there were lots of them that could be had at $5-$8.
-The Reverend (I am not a Nazi nor a Troll)
-The Reverend (I am not a Nazi nor a Troll)
=(.\')=
While we're propogating stereo types; I'm sooo sorry our "highly skilled manual laborer" doesn't make as much money as us over paid fat ass geeks. Maybe he should have done his own school work instead of copy some geeks. Maybe he should have spent more time using his brain instead of using his muscle to pick on geeks. Why are you even on Slashdot if you think this way? The internet was created by geeks, this web site if "news for nerds"; if you don't like it snail mail me your response to support your precious manual laborers. I'll get back to you in 6 to 8 weeks. ~Fucking trolls~
Looking at this line-up shows how many more Autobots there were than Decepticons. Yet, the two sides always seemed evenly matched. This leads me to believe that the Decepticons were so much more Bad-Ass!
Are you referring to the episode where SHipwreck was on a Prisoner-like island, and his family were some weird blob-like creatures, with his daughtter firing a bazooka at him?
That episode WAS a mindfuck.
interesting fact I can't confirm: the almighty Megatron toy(one of the few non-symmetrical toys), was actually released way back in 1974, but not named Megatron.
I didn't get any toys with guns or any stuff like that (meaning no transformers at all). My cousins' bedrooms were full of transformers. Like you couldn't even walk in there, you just kind of had to wade through broken transformers and imitations. No, I played with legos (later) and dump drucks (earlier) and stuff.
And about your sig: I have a NO DVD CCA T-shirt. 95% of the people I talk to when I wear that shirt ask me what it is.
Photos of bits of the past hiding in the present: afiler.com
There opened but there are nearly 200 of them in the set. Even assuming just regular retail prices for each one that's pretty close to 10000$ right there. Not that I could afford to buy them.
| Cunning Pike... Good Guy...
All is not lost, as we also have the legacy of Thundercats and Robotech. These shows were not blatant toy commercials, and I think lead to the sense that creativity and sales could coexist. We have seen such a happy medium in Animaniacs, Rugrats, and the pre-Disney episodes of Doug. Currently, Pokemon does an extremely good job of being a slave to the two masters, with massive toy sales and good storylines and dialogue. We also still have shows that just want to silly, like Dexter and Sheep in the Big City.
All those Generation-1 transformers.. wow..
I have to say- SOUND WAVE was the coolest! I mean, a transformer that can transform into a cassette player! AND -- his tapes also transform..
Plus, he had the funkiest voice on the cartoon. I remember buying the toy, and wearing it out from all the transforming I did..
And the triple-changers were pretty cool, too. I don't remember the name of the decepticon plane/tank/robot (the purple one).. but that was sweet! Does anyone know the name of that one?
BTW, $10,000 ?!?!?!?
I wonder how much I could get for just 1 mint condition G1 Megatron (I have it).
f u cn rd ths, u r prbbly a lsy spllr.
C'mon, someone who loves Brawn has to be mod :D
OH MY GOD SOMEBODY PLAYED WITH THESE TOYS! Quick! Alert the authorities!
I think you would be hard pressed to find a transformers fan whose fondest memories involved staring at the toy thru an unopened box. You see where I'm headed with this?
- Toby
Vulvasaur? Is that like some Pokemon with vaginal powers?
Growing up in the 80's, it was *always* GI Joe vs. Transformers...
e m& amp; item=546291249
For an equally impressive auction, check out this link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt
this is the unifying thread within all of /. isint it....
we all fundementally understand transformers.
the secret is unleashed.
- the partially transformed transformah
Aren't Power Rangers just Voltron reincarnated?
Reality has a liberal bias
...spend more time on the HTML!
There is a small industry built around repairing old transformers. And, in Japan they apparently have started making old school type Transformers, including some of the originals just like they were way back when. And, I have to add the C64 as one of the damn coolest toys from that era...there were so MANY games... man...those were the days
There is no guarantee that the content has been read or understood.
are you kidding me?!? i agree that paying $1000 for a PSX2 is nuts because if you wait a while they will be available for the normal price. but these transformers are a part of many peoples childhood. i would pay $1000 for those pieces of platic because it is worth it. $10,000 is high, but if i had $1000 around i would buy them, they cost more then that new back in the day anyway.. and if you had faith in our species before you had some real denial problems...
They're also some brilliant engineering. First time I saw Starscream do his thing, I knew that I wanted to be an engineer when I grew up. I'm still working on the growing up part...but I still love my Transformers.
Think about it this way...it's far less weird than that sled that dude in Citizen Kane wanted...: )
And, if you compare the price to what these things are going for one-off on ebay, it's a bargain. I predict he's going to see the high side of $25k for the set.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Dang, I was in 2nd grade or so. I remembered my mother buying the Optimus Prime one for me and more for her friends' (so the parents wouldn't have to go hunting to buy them). I remembered how hard it was to get. I don't think it was bad as getting a Playstation 2 though.
:). I believe they both went "adios" in a garage sale. DOH!
:)
Now, I don't remember what happened to my Transformers (didn't have all them). I also had Voltrons (lions one)
Ahh, the good old days!
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Count me out. This is just another foolish $10K I won't be spending.
What the heck...? So you're saying that you're a better or more manly nerd than people that played with Transformers? Who gives a flying fig? I will never understand why geeks feel the need judge each other based on what areas of geekdom they enjoy. We get judged enough by the mundanes; why bring it within the community?
Or, maybe you were kidding, in which case an emoticon might have been prudent.
The ROBOT turns into a building?
Where's the fun in that????
Those old first gen units with the die-cast metal were built to last, too. I remember a friend of mine used to have an Optimus Prime, and we used to throw it off the end of his dock at his cottage in northern Ontario, and then leave it there all through the winter, and every summer we'd go back and dive until we found it. After years of this treatment the damn thing still worked perfectly. Try that one with most of today's low grade plastic crap.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
i highly doubt you would see a highly skilled manual laborer spending his dough on such plastic crap
Your right. They're too busy spending their money on Big Mouth Billy Bass and 40 piece Sears Craftsmen rachet sets.
and probably has a life anyways
Yeah, and most of it revolves around drinking beer at the pool-hall, or finding a good Ford LTD to run in next years Demolition Derby.
10,000 is a bit much for this collection. Ive followed alot of individual sales on ebay and you could easily buy them all separately for less. If they were all MIB you could justify the 10K, but from the listing many are broke, missing parts and not with box, so the value decreases by about 50%. I did keep all my transformers (and later conned by brother out of all of his, though they were a bit worse on wear). I have half the 1984 Autobots and all but one 1984 Decepticon, and about half the 1985 years of either and one or two from 1986 years. Without the boxes I have a typical ebay value of about 1000 dollars. All of mine are complete, with only 2 having glued parts, but missing the boxes. That would double the price. I love them, and do not intend to sell them (other the the extra Grimlock I have and some loose parts from the Aerialbots). If I had money to burn I wouldnt pay much more then 6000 for this collection. But wouldnt it be nice to have them all!
The Difference Between Genius and Stupidity.....Genius has limits!
In my imagination Jetfire would be the most expensive Transformer out there, exactly because he IS a Veritech. For anyone who still plays the old Robotech RPG (yes we still exist), having a Jetfire toy standing around while playing a game adds quite the realism.
I remember once I came across an old Macross MAC III Destroid for $2 at a toy liquidator. I bought all three and sold them for $50 a pop to collectors. Meanest destroid ever made.
I'm thinking this guy could have possibly made more money selling these things separately, but is the bidding finished?
Bork
Yeah, that is what I was thinking too when I first saw the Power Rangers. Nothing can beat the original Voltrons (excluding the 3D rendered one) :).
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Wow. You'd think all we did in the eighties was buy stuff. I may remember all these brand names, and they may have marked my childhood by way of being there; but to say all these wonderful products were my childhood... I think not. They neither defined me nor altered the course of my life.
Damn straight! Transformers were the 'end of the end' for Saturday morning cartoons, and the toys were just as bloody awful as the show. I'm reserving a special place in hell for the marketeers who came up with this mindless, unentertaining crap.
/.ers was about 1 year old. As I grew older, the cartoons got crappier. Then about five years ago, they got better again! There are some BRILLIANT cartoons on TV right now, which are being created by my microgeneration--the ones who remember what cartoons were like _before_ transformers.
What I find most interesting is the age-related aspects of it all. The cartoons I remeber fondly were from a few years earlier, when the _average_ age of
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
die-cast construction, its a lost art :)
Sorry, I'm a big fan of Mainframe, hadda get it right.
BTW, if you're the author of this, or you know the author, drop me a line. I've had it up on my website for a while, and I'd really like to ask him for permission to have it there.
Reality has a liberal bias
I wouldn't keep the autobots and decepticons in one room. In fact I wouldn't let Grimlock anywhere near the fridge. Grimlock say, "Me hungry". I always found it amusing that they turned a futuristic robot into a dinosaur design that used primitive language of Tarzan.
Game: Player 'Donald J Trump' now has AI skill level 'experimental'.
Ya know, for $10,000, you'd think maybe he could have worked a little harder on the web-layout.
Or at least turned off the caps-lock key.
"I was never allowed to have transformers as a kid. I had go-bots (a cheap knockoff if I've ever seen one)."
Don't feel so bad, a friend of mine had Transmobots (that's Trans-MO-bots) which were rip off Go-bots. (I'm not joking, my friend still has the blister card if you want a scan to prove the validity of such an abomination)
ARKBAN
I just hate it WHEN THAT HAPPENS.
--
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(As long as this story about Transformers is up, I should probably plug the rec.toys.transformers.moderated newsgroup which I help to moderate, as well as the article about Transformers fandom that I wrote a while back. And the yearly Transformers convention, BotCon, which will be in Carolina this year.)
--
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
I used to live next door to a kid whos parents bought in every single one of these things. There wasn't anything he didn't have. The worst part about it, hes still has them to this day. (Or at least, I think he does :)
BTW: There NOTHING wrong with gobots. They where kind of cool too.Mp>
until (succeed) try { again(); }
until (succeed) try { again(); }
I bet, 10 years from now, there's some kid all "Dude, when I was a kid, my Vulvasaur kicked ass all over these lame-ass intelligent robot dogs like those kids have today..."
"Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto"
(I am a man: nothing human is alien to me)
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
----
Transformers, Lego, and G I Joe that's what my life as a kid was about. I looked at that auction and my heart almost bled 'cause I really, really want that! Too bad I'm only in college right now, maybe in 15 years...? Those toys really helped my mind expand, ah the games I played with them! Never, ever followed the instructions on the back of the Lego box, always made up my own designs!
I still play with my Lego and G I joes sometimes. God those toys were awesome!
-"Those who fought today will die tommorow."-
Looking back at all the posts, not one person has pointed out how miserably overpriced $10,000 is. Come on! I remember a couple of weeks ago there was a /.'ed video game collection of an unbelievable amount of games and that was only going for $20K, or so.
This guy loves his 'bots, but anyone who would pay that much for them is silly. This guy isn't the only person out there with this collection.
-Moondog
Sell "rare" Dragonball Z product imports and "rare" Pokemon imports on ebay. Pretty cheap and easy to find... One I found japanese pokemon cards at my local HEB.
I say we bring back toys that could inflict serious damage! Get Darwin back in children's lives!
It's all about survival of the fittest! The kid who swallowed too many marbles never made it to reproduce.
-Z
Those are nice...but a bit pricey... Wish they'd just rerelease them in the US for a more reasonable price.
I remember being a big Robotech fan, but a so-so Transformers fan. I rememeber that JETFIRE was a somewhat lame charater and poorly drawn. When I saw the JETFIRE toy in the toystore, however, I was shocked and exited. It was really a Robotech Valkyrie! In fact, it looked nothing like JETFIRE. I remember the documentation showed how to transform it. Plane to robot (Figheter to Battloid) it also described an "alternate tranformation"... which turned our to be guardian mode (a plane with arms and legs). Too bad the arms kept falling off...
Hopefully, speaking as a VW fan, they'll update the Bumblebee/Goldbug. I'd like to see some well-done Volkswagens -- maybe even a white four-door Golf like mine! -- in this line. I collect space shuttles (see my other comment in this thread based on that) and am considering a Goldbug for my VW minis. But updated ones would be sweet. Maybe a lowered GTI with a nice body kit would be suitable for adaptation to the Car Robots.
i am a soviet space shuttle
Dissention from the collective childhood warm-fuzzy remeniscence earns a "Troll" rating?
When I was a child, I was perceptive enough to see the inflection point where cartoons changed from entertainment tools to marketing tools. Seeing this disgusted me... Seeing a crowd of people who otherwise have excellent ability to see through marketing BS get lulled back into this stuff is really scary.
Does everyone in our society have a marketing button that can be pressed, or am I fooling myself thinking that vigilant people can make purely rational purchase decisions?
I still hate the friggin things.
That is a shame.. If you had taken better care of them you could have put them on sale for $9500 on Ebay and watch no one buy them.
-gerbik
The Transformers (which I most regret) seemed to hold out better than all others, with the possibly exception of all my ~1980 UK matchbox cars, which generally took a lot of killing (often including home-made fireworks.)
Still, if I hadn't got to my age with some huge regrets, I wouldn't make much of an adult, would I?
Interestingly, just the other day while cleaning out the spare room I found the leg of a Star Wars medical droid. Where the rest of him was, I don't know, I would like to think "vapourized", which would lend a certain irony to it. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
This set won't be worth a minuscule fraction of what he's asking since they aren't in the boxes.
I think homeboy is dreaming.
Speaking of things that were meant to keep us from crying in the eighty's (stupid traumatic childhood), does anyone remember Record Breakers by Hasbro? I loved those toys even more than transformers and lego's combined. I can say that they were the first thing I ever "tweaked." Different motors, different wheels, supercharged batteries, slick racing tracks. I can still smell the axel grease that came in those tiny little plastic packets.
--bigwang
I consider the earlier, videogame-based cartoons (Pac-Man, etc.) to be the "beginning of the end".
Beanie and Cecil - the original version, not that one season of "New Beanie and Cecil" in the early 90s... with the same pun problems as the Xanth books, but with a much subtler underlying wit.
Dark Water (original 10 eps only) - More than brilliant, it was the extraction of what was good about 80s toons, in the 90s, without the toys (yes, I know, but those came much later... after the five part pilot and the five followups)
Two Stupid Dogs - simple, entertaining, and way more subtle than it seemed.
PowerPuff Girls - have you actually watched it with a critical eye?
I'm avoiding listing anything marketted as an adult toon... no Simpsons, South Park, or Beavis and Butt-Head... because I feel that the type of show I mention above is far more interesting. There was someone involved in that show who thought, "let's see what we can slide in under these kids' subconciences"...
I don't know if anyone's seen the new Spiderman or X-Men toons. Those are created by people from the five-year period immediately before the toy toons. They're awful. Worse than the toy toons, in a lot of ways. And things like the new crop of sloppy animation shows (Recess, for a perfect example) are just as bad. Cartoon Network and Nick are exceptions to this rule, and some of the newest stuff that is obviously the start of the TF era redux (Beast Wars, the other CGIs like Action Man, Max Steel, Starship Troopers, the remarkable extension to the Batman series Batman Beyond) are fantastic. I'm not sure where to place the new (also really good) Jackie Chan 'toon...
I've dabbled enough in the industry to know that there's no real age component in the talent creating the best shows. The factors are more social and economic... Do the marketting people think the public (kids or no) are gullible and shallow at the moment... or more reachable with wit? What's going to get ratings? And given the Pokemon/Saban (gag) grab of the share, is it better to do more of the same and try for their leavings, or go in the radical opposite direction and see if you can't pull yourself an admittedly smaller, but still respectable share of the disposessed savier viewers?
And of course, it all comes down to the pitch of the guy who came up with the concept in the first place... me, I'm looking forward to the new Reboot series.
-- Still waiting for the Nike endorsement
"Worlds Without End" is the one where a malfunctioning disentigrator ray tears a hole in spacetime to a universe where Cobra won, involving such happy fun things as the 'Joes happening upon skeletons in the desert wearing their dogtags, and Steeler getting bitten by an infectious bug and getting delirious and hallucinating, and declaring that they're all dead and they've gone to hell (though they can't use the word "hell" due to BS&P).
That's a mindfuck.
--
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
The confusion may stem from the rare TFTM music score CDs, issued for the BotCon convention (and occasionally findable on eBay or Napster--search on the word "botcon"), featuring rerecordings of all the instrumental music from Transformers: The Movie.
For the CD, Vince DiCola modified the instrumental piece from that part of the movie slightly, dropping in an instrumental version of the "Dare to Be Stupid" synthesizer riff to substitute for the music played at that point in the movie, which of course could not be included on that CD.
--
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
JetFire/SkyFire is the greatest toy of all time. High quality metal/plastic, killer looks, good transform, the works. I traded JetFire for the Constructicons and I regret it to this day.
Transform and roll out!
Cowards (especially the anonymous variety) don't generally kick ass.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
The "in-between" mode was Guardian mode. That was about the best of the Transformers, but agreed very fragile. It even had metal spring-loaded landing gear with a little button to press to kick them out, although on mine after a while it didn't catch so well and it was always gear-down for Jetfire :)
Your right to not believe: Americans United for Separation of Church and
People played with their toys back then--so it became super-rare to find any of them in good condition. Scarcity drives price--and for a complete set, of course you'll pay more than you would for individual items, just for all the work it took the guy to assemble it.
Nowadays, everyone's collecting toys--and so, ironically, it will be decades before they're worth anything--if ever. Which means, I guess, that now toys really are just for playing with.
--
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Did you ever notice that there seemed to be something missing from the original first year transformer toys? For instance, my first transformer was Soundwave and he appeared to have an additional compartment on his back that didn't really serve a purpose. I always wondered if we in the US were getting cheated out of some extra functionality just because some moron kid choked on a missile a decade back (recall the BattleStar Galactica Viper that launched a missile?) and his damn liberal parents sued the sack off of the toy manufacture. Thus the mail order Bobba-Fet's back pack missile was GLUED in instead of launching out. Sorry for the tangent,
PRIME - Indivisible by anything but ME!
I always theorized that the reason most execs "need" laptops was to make up for the fact that they didn't get Rock'em-Sock'em Robots in their boyhood.
Fistgrrl
"We're tired of all those Microsoft developers shoving their Win-Ho's in our face."
With, as the commercial goes (in a voice that sounds like the speaker is simultaneously bench pressing 300),
"More muscles, sir!"
"More missiles, sir!"
"More steroids, sir!"
Okay, I made that last up. But still, it's sad to see that they've made the original G.I.Joe into a thinking man's cartoon...
When you were being conceived in a fit of passion by your parents I was building WORKING radios and transmitters from scratch, and collecting parts/gears to build WORKING robots. That's a real nerd's childhood, not pansy toys that have no functionality to them.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
"Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto"
(I am a man: nothing human is alien to me)
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
Don't have to get him on ebay. He's being reissued. You can pre-order him (and buy a bunch of the other TF2000 series, some are reissues, some I've never seen before, most are freakin' amazing) here.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Nearly brings a tear to the eye to see the little cassets again. Those were the only ones I had but they were awsome. I always liked the Decepticons better because they could fly and the little ones were no exception. Wow.
Now THESE Transformers, the new Car Robots series from Takara in Japan, are SWEET. Word is, Hasbro is bringing them to America.
like a lot of people here, I had Transformers when I was younger. I watched the cartoon regularly, (much to the disapointment of my parrents, who prefered that I watch sesame st.) Anyway, does anyone have a link to a site with a complete transformers biography. Ideally it would have the name of each transformer, what it changed into, and a little bit about it's personality (as portrayed on the TV show)
------ Work is so much easier when you don't
I was also not fortunate enough to have the Transformer toys (I think they overlapped with the Star Wars action figures, so I always chose Luke & Yoda over robo-XXX). But, the ultimate toy from this generation is the Stomper 4x4. These little plastic beauties had big rubber or foam wheels, a two gear transmission (if I remember correctly), and a whoop-ass monster truck plastic shell. There have been several attempts to revive the Stomper line for later generations, but apparently they have all failed. Looking through Toys R' Us today, it seems that every car needs 8 buttons with various annoying sound effects & voice clips.
[clears his throat]
I pity, I say I pity da fool than don't like the A-Team. You're crazier than Murdoch, fool. Now get out my face.
Thank you.
.sig: Now legally binding!
I hear you about the starwars figures. I collected Transformers too, but I never had THAT many of them. Probably 10-15 total. I eventually sold all of them in a garage sale for a few bucks.
:) I was about 10 at the time and I longed for the weekly trip to K-Mart so I could plop down about $2.50 for another action figure. That was about what I could accumulate during the week, but thats all I ever spent my money on (if I couldn't find any arcade games that is :)
:)
The starwars figures however I never got rid of. I remember the days of collecting them. It was 1983-84 when I started collecting them in bulk, not for collecting them per sae, but so I could play with them.
I managed to collect about 90% of the action figures, and a decent number of the ships. While I don't have the original packaging for most of it, and over the years bits and pieces have disappeared, I still have most of the collection. I suppose the only reason I kept all of them was because at the time I had spent my own hard earned money on them. I certainly recieved a few of them as gifts, but for the most part they came out of my own pocket.
For this reason alone, I never had the heart to sell them or give them away, even though it was tempting at times. I know at one time I sat down and tried to figure out exactly how much money I had spent on action figures over time, and the total came up to something like $300 for all the figures and ships. That was a HUGE amount of money to me at the time, and I was almost stunned by it. No way I was gonna sell these off for a few bucks in a garage sale.
Of course, right now they're collecting dust out in my garage. Since I don't have the original packaging, and they're in far but mint condition, I can't see myself ever offering them up to some crazed bidder who simply can't live without them. I'm just going to hold on to them as memories of my childhood. I never kept most of the toys I had over the years, so it would be nice to have SOMETHING to look at 40 years from now.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
At least then we don't have to hear CmdrTaco's editorials bitching about things that don't matter to him, but do to the rest of the world. Like MSFT going down yesterday (read: news for nerds, stuff that matters).
I remember my friends and I in 4th grade trying to come up with different words for the Transformers theme. The result incorporated the names of characters from several other cartoons popular at the time. This has haunted me ever since:
The Transformers, friends of Rainbow Bright.
Little Orko, can't do nothin' right.
Scooby-doo raids the refrigerator
Starves to death the forces of G.I. Joe!
(I'm going to regret posting this)
There's a really easy answer to that: Code it.
Download Bender, and put it in. If it's down well, more power to you.
And please don't insult me by thinking I get some sort of kickback from frickin' eBay.
Yeah, I'm that guy.
Considering the current level of VA Linux stock, CmdrTaco might be able to pay the $10,000 but he'd have to bow out when someone else raises it to $10,050
If I only kept my transformers and voltron toys as a kid....
yup that's right Nostalgia is expensive... I bet at least 50% of us who are male, grew up in the US and were born before 1981 upon seeing this thought depressingly to ourselves "I told mom not to give those to good will, along with my GIJOE's and StarWars Action figures..."
:)
If in need of a good guilt trip (to get extra money for beer-um i mean college) be sure you email that url to your mom
The thing that transforms from a bot into a handgun that looks so real you could hold up a seven eleven and steal the rest of the transformers off the shelf. The cost of megatron and the small fine for robbery is probably cheaper than it'll be to get them off ebay =)
I am !amused.
that they have the very Robotech-ish jet fighter Transfomer. Those things were awesome, but they fell apart if you looked at them funny
I collected gi-joes myself. Hung them from the ceiling by little shoestring nooses. My little brother thought I was a god, my mom thought I needed therapy. Now my brother thinks I'm a dweeb, and my mom still thinks I need therapy.
sigh
Judge Pag, the Learned, Impartial, and Very Relaxed
That way, I'll be sure to get some bids!
Waitaminute, I thought Transformers were the knockoff. Weren't Go-bots mostly die-cast metal, while Transformers were plastic?
And why were you allowed to have one and not the other? Were Go-bots "less violent" or something?
Me, I always had a problem with the idea that giant space robots would come to Earth and think that morphing themselves into giant space tractor-trailer bristling with laser guns would make them somehow less conspicuous...
If so, I want Jazz back, damnit.
----
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
was the white racing Porsche with the whale tail. It was the most realistic car, and also the coolest looking robot. I also had the lamborghini. It was from the toys before they were named Transormers, and there was a little yellow robot man that rode in the cockpit of the car. I'm fairly certain the little man had magnets on his feet.
I have almost every transformer on that list (95% of them) from my childhood... I didn't take too good care of them though, and many are broken. I wish I had treated them better... not that I would EVER sell them!! =P But still, it's a shame they're not in good shape. I also have an almost complete set of the Transformers comic book series, with an extra copy of #1 in mint condition... how sad is THAT?!
;-)
Transformers remain next to only Legos, Atari 2600's, and 386 PC's as the best toys of the 80's IMO. Pity they can't make transformers, lego, OR computers the way they used to.
-Kasreyn
Kasreyn: Cheerfully playing the part of Devil's Advocate to hairtrigger
I had all sorts of Transformers when I was a kid. My fave's were the "Constructacons." Remember? The glow in the dark dump trucks and cranes and bull dozers that transformed? I loved those! :)
And CmdrTaco.. i woulda shared mine with you. No kid should be without the Transformers!
"We don't stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing."
lego and mechanno gave your generation their first experience in manipulating object in an object oriented environment? wtf kinda sensory deprived environment did your generation grow up in?
The odd thing is, the Transformers toys sold a lot better than the original Japanese toys on which they'd been based--revitalizing Japanese toy manufacturer Takara, who made most of the original Generation One toys, and still continues (in partnership with Hasbro) to make Transformers to this day. In fact, the Transformers cartoon became popular enough in Japan itself to spawn three new animé series (Headmasters, Masterforce, and Victory), an OAV (Zone), and myriad manga, after the franchise's demise in America. In Japan and Europe, Transformers never really died out--a lot of the "Generation Two" and "Machine Wars" toys were American re-issues of European or Japanese product.
Why do so many people think fondly of Transformers? Well, the writing of the shows, though occasionally juvenile, still managed to be sufficiently mature that not just kids but teens and even some adults could enjoy it. It portrayed all the characters as being three-dimensional--even the villains, who could have friendships, motivations, and respect for their adversaries, and who never resorted to the kiddie-show characterization of referring to themselves as "evil". To this day, there is a strident faction of Decepticon devotees active in fandom, who insist that the Deceps were misunderstood and that their "survival of the fittest" philosophy was actually in Cybertron's best interests. The show had some silly episodes, and some that make even the most devoted fans cringe--but at its best, it could really make you stop and think. You just don't find that kind of depth in most other kids' shows of that day, and even less in such shows of today.
And that's just the TV show. There were comic books, too--80-some in the US (plus the 12-issue Generation 2 miniseries), 300-some in the UK--whose storyline was nearly entirely different from the show, and which featured some terrific writing--especially toward the end, during Simon Furman's run. These were a lot more mature than the TV show, with a more serious storyline and more room for characterization.
As for the later stuff--while not as good as the original, Beast Wars did have quite a few good points. It's too bad they fired the creative staff and went on to make that god-awful Beast Machines thing afterward.
As for GoBots . . . well, I'll agree with you that the toys were pretty cool (the ones I saw, at least). But the episode or two of the TV show that I caught didn't seem to live up to the sort of thing I saw in Transformers. It may just be a matter of personal preference, though.
Anyway, I've written a bit more about TF fandom in this article. Feel free to check it out.
--
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
When I was a kid, I had lots of Lego, and later on a bunch of Micronauts.
:)
When I was 11 or 12, my Mom made me decide: keep the Lego or keep the Micronauts. Of course, I kept the Lego! (figuring I could do more with it)
However, I've never forgiven my Mom for making me go through such a choice. (not that I think about it, unless stories like this come up
So, future parents, *never* make your kids go through this! I don't care that none of my toys are in the original boxes; toys are for playing, not collecting, dammit!!
Ah well, that's just me going off on a tangent.
Pope
Freedom is Slavery! Ignorance is Strength! Monopolies offer Choice!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
I'm very impressed with the accuracy, especially for a toy -- before the decals are applied, nearly every tile line, fill/vent port, and contour are scored in. It seems to be based on Challenger, Discovery, and Atlantis but not Enterprise or Columbia (tile patterns different on the latter two.)
The original Generation 1 Transformers are my favorites. The modern ones are a pale shadow.
i am a soviet space shuttle
Wow, impressive.
;). *sigh*
I always wanted Optimus Prime when I was a kid. I couldn't afford to buy it so I built it out of Lego. With a trailer-truck that opened up and everything!
Too bad; $10K can buy a lot of crap (booze, among other things
- Transformers: The Movie - Yes, the original with tons of great voice actors--Judd Nelso, Leonard Nimoy, Orson Wells, Robert Stack, Peter Cullen. (and the DVD just came out a few weeks ago!)
- Transformers MUSHes - Roleplay as your favorite Transformers with loads of other people. There's a whole lot more then just these two.
- Transfans - Probably the biggest organized Transformers club
- Botcon - The biggest and best Transformers convention. I went in 95 and 97--great toys, movies, people, and artwork.
Have fun getting your Transformers fix.I dunno about you, but to me and a lotta other people this article means a lot. If you don't like it, just don't read it. Slashdot is read by so many people with a variety of interests.
-"Those who fought today will die tommorow."-
Micronauts? The Micropolis Mega City was where it was at!
.
my first thought was ..... "cool now I can avoid PacBell and put my office directly on the grid ..."
You know, "Transformers...Morgan meets The Eye!"
Send your friends messages of love at fuck-you.org
You obviously know how to get good advertising.
its sad to see kids playing with pokemon.. back when i was a kid.. we had REAL toys.. transformers, gi joes.. none of those wussy pokeshits.. bring back the real toys!!!!!!!!! /rant
Incredible -- I hadn't thought of this stuff for years. I was in first grade when those came out. They put me in fifth grade (if memory serves), because they didn't know what to do with. In the cafeteria, I had to eat with the big kids. They all brought transformers to school. I'd never seen them before, but I was amazed by them. I saw a kid with Optimus Prime, and I decided that I simply had to have one.
And I got one. For Christmas. In fifth grade.
Oh, well, at least my parents tried.
Only one site has the truth: Where Are The Toons Now? Apparently Optimus Prime became a garbage truck; sad, but I think he's happier that way. Also features a documentary on He-Man's conversion from Master Of The Universe to disco diva; Grayskull never looked so pink...
Matthew @ Bytemark Hosting
Now I come from a remote area of the country called NoDak, but I seen to remember GoBots comming out before transformers. I remember my nine year old mind calling Transformers a rip off. So does anyone really know the true original?
. . . but I've held off enough. You can get your Transformers fix right here.
--
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Anyone know if this is true? I've always wanted to check it out but haven't gotten around to it.
Carl
Vote Libertarian
"vaguely reminiscent of actual vehicles"...
Yes, and when they transformed into "robots", they were dead-on doubles for actual twisted piles of wreckage, but with something that could pass for face if you were on mushrooms placed in some convenient location. The transforming McDonalds french fries toy comes out looking more like a warrior robot than any of the go-bots ever did.
The Transformers may have been plastic, and they may, as you imagine have been slightly on the nelly side, but they looked reasonably like actual vehicles, and when they transformed, gosh darn it, they looked somewhat like robots. Robots that often looked a lot like Episode I battledroids with large pieces of automobiles or jet planes inexplicable welded to their appendages, but at least they had hands that looked like hands and more than faces, these even usually had an actual head to put it on.
:) But really, I was too old for either, though my kid brother had some of both. Neither seemed less prone to his phenomenal toy-breaking facility either.
All kings is mostly rapscallions. -Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The transformers were, initially, made of quality metal and the transformations were really innovative and overly complex (JUST the way they should have been!), while the Go-Bots were plastic and crude, thus cheaper.
Metal Go-Bots came later, ironically around when the Transformers started going over to cheap crude plastic. Not very long after, the Transformers got pretty weak... but the originals still rule. I even take them out every once in a while and transform them so I won't forget how (in case I need to in an emergency)...
-Kasreyn
Kasreyn: Cheerfully playing the part of Devil's Advocate to hairtrigger
That is why many children of the era, including me, became such great programmers.
You know exactly what to do-
Your kiss, your fingers on my thigh-
You know exactly what to do-
Your kiss, your fingers on my thigh-
I think of little else but you.
I happen to have a few of the original "Robotech" aka Macross toys. "Jetfire" is from a VF-1S Super Valkyrie. I happen to have 2 VF-1S Strike variants (which are cooler). The Transformer version has a slightly blunted nose, and minimaly different paint. Also in the US versions the guns don't shoot, but you could probably fix that with spring from a small retractable pen. As a side note the ladies don't seem to be as impressed as the dudes by a couple of grand worth of the coolest toys ever made. Who would have ever imagined that?
--Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
As extra bonus info, SDF-1's in Japan would shoot these sharp little fighters off its arms. In japan, children will have fun and totally sweet toys even if it kills them. And there's a lesson to be learned from that.
--Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
Which is how come when that water-squirting G2 came out, they could call him Go-Bots--and how they could call those later, Hot-Wheels compatible Transformers "Go-Bots" too.
--
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
If you would like to appraise some of these toys, you can check out the price guide on my site, HERE. I don't have a script to tally up total prices, but if you look at the prices for some of those Generation One toys, you'll see that they are quite pricey, depending on their condition.
A sealed Fortress Maximus from 1987 is valued at a whopping $1250 alone (according to Lee's Action Figure News and Toy Review). The cars such as Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are close to $400 a piece. So a complete G1 set can easily cost you that much, if all the toys are C10 (from a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best condition) and MIP (Mint in the Package).
Beef! Beef! Beef!
Just because something's marketed doesn't mean it sucks. The cartoon, and the toys, were of very good quality. Just because there were both doesn't mean both were bad. Take a deep breath and contemplate Jetfire's transformation sequence. You'll feel better.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
The original G.I. Joe cartoon, at its best, was a thinking man's show, or almost. It had some terrific episodes, such the two-parter "Worlds Without End," which was recently released on video, and may just make me break my "DVD only" dictum if it doesn't hit the shiny disc soon. I defy anyone to watch that show without shivering--it's a creepy SF/horror story that could have come right off the Twilight Zone. That episode should be pictured in the dictionary under the term "mindf*ck," it's just that good.
--
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
Transformers went on in the 90's to become Beast wars which had a decent show with good writing and superior toys with madass articulation the old toys could never have. And more recently became Beast machines which continued the story of Beast wars with a new darker theme and highly phillosophical writing. Toys also cool but it did have soem duds as well. But at least it brought back vehicles with the Vehicons. I'm looking at my ultra jetstorm as we speak. And lets not forget about Car Robots over in japan which I thankfully have seen 24 glorious episodes of online thanks to
tfw2005.com
Note that the recent DVD release of Transformers the movie is completely uncut (has swear words in it). However, if you want the uncut widescreen version, you will have to import an even more recent (only by a few months) DVD release... and you will probably have to disable region coding to play the imported DVD. Try a Hollywood Plus decoder along with a hack.
Finally, my vote for best transformer has to go to Soundwave. You just can't get anymore loyal than Soundwave. Sure he was a baddie, but his absolute loyalty to his leader is something to respect. Oh, and his voice is the coolest!
I'll lose a great deal of my faith in our species if this guy gets even one bid. I shouldn't hold my breath, I know someone is going to buy into this nonsense.
And names? No Optimus-Prime-straight off the hairdryer names for the go-bots, no sir! They were too cool for names: they got assigned a function, and then a number. Leader 1, baby, or Turbo as one of the frillier ones (bet he was a pooftah). Those were the days, crushing those anarcho-communist Renegades for the good of Gobotron!
Nor did they stick around to become a burden on toy society, to be mentioned with shame these days; the go-bots knew when to die off and leave their heroic legend to posterity. bah, humbug.
"Oh Bother", said the Borg, "We've assimilated Pooh."
I played with those toys every day when I was a kid; my friends and siblings and I had this huge intricate storyline that spanned like three years. I attribute those days to my development as an aspiring author and webmaster for an upcoming webcomic (that's what the world needs, right? another webcomic? You bet it does). The sad thing was that at the end of that story line, they all died in an apocalypse...I hammered many of them to death and corroded the rest in some toxic mix from my huge chemistry set...I am so kicking myself today. It's depressing to realize that one of the few happy memories (geeks get only so many) from childhood has no tangible manifestation anymore, and that due to my own hand. I'm a lot more careful with my newer toys - pda's are toys, aren't they?
There is no guarantee that the content has been read or understood.
Was this megatron thing the one that kept saying "excellent, excellent" in a really evil, dark tone? Oh man, it was cool.
I wonder if the guy who submitted the article is the one who's auctioning the stuff. Slashdoting your ebay auction would be a hell of a way to get the goods past as many eyes as possible (and therefore a high price too). Not that I'm saying that's a bad thing, just curious. I'm surprised we haven't seen more of these... or maybe we have and the editors just reject the stories.
Unix is user friendly, it's just selective about who its friends are.
I think partly the trouble is some people, including moderators, don't know what "troll means". I can't find it defined anywhere on in the Slashdot faq, though it does appear in the faq for kuro5hin.
The Jargon File defines "troll" as "to utter a posting on Usenet designed to attract predictable responses or flames; or, the post itself." A key part of this definition is that the poster pretends to be serious about a subject but in fact is trying to attract flames.
From references in comments, I'd guess that many people on Slashdot understand something else by the term, though I'm not sure what. The fact that Slashdot's faq describes anti-troll filters (when from the description they seem to be describing anti-spam filters) seems to imply that the confusion is occasionally present even in the minds of the administrators.
M
GROGGS: alive and well and living in
but when i look in my wallet, $10,000 is:
MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
sorry, couldn't resist.
-=tonyt=-